Testing Struts Application

It will be noticed that there are a lot of 'system.out.println's in the action class code.Intentionally so!

Testing Struts Application

Testing Struts Application

     

It will be noticed that there are a lot of 'system.out.println's in the action class code.Intentionally so! The step by step progress gets printed in the Tomcat console and is very instructive. When trouble occurs, it aids in diagnosis greatly.It also gives us a clear understanding.

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But, understanding the code is one thing ( and the easier thing at that) and actually executing the program ,is quite a different thing altogether! We must do each step with maximum care, to avoid a lot of problems.

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We begin by creating a folder( say)
 
g:\examplestruts>

Our proposed package name is demo1;

So create a subfolder named 'demo1'.

cd to g:\examplestruts\demo1

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Create the following six files in demo1 folder.

  1. query.jsp
  2. QueryForm.java
  3. QueryAction.java
  4. sqlbean.java
  5.  resultbean.java
  6. result.jsp

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We cannot compile QueryForm.java & QueryAction.java , unless we first install Struts in our system.

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How do we instal Struts in our system?

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steps.

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  1. transfer jakarta-struts1.1 zip file from DeveloperIQ CD to g:drive.
  2. unzip it into c:\unzipped.
  3. It got unzipped as jakarta-struts1.1 folder.

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We get three folders and 3 files

  4.  The 3 folders are
  a) contrib
  b) lib
  c) webapps

============
 The 3 files are:
 5.  a) readme.txt
  b) license.txt
   c) instal.txt
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6.  open webapps folder.

7.   we will find the following  war files there.( web-application-archives)
  a )struts-blank
    b)struts-documentation
  c) struts-example
  d) struts-exercise-taglib
  e) struts-template
  f) struts-upload
   g) struts-validator

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8. copy struts-blank.war  into:
  g:\tomcat41\webapps folder.
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9. In a DOS window, cd to g:\tomcat41\bin
10. >set JAVA_HOME=D:\JDK1.4
11. startup

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12. tomcat server gets started .
13. Now in another dos window , check up that struts-blank.war has automatically expanded by the server and we get a folder named struts-blank.
14. If you expand struts-blank folder, there are 3 subfolders there.
  i) META-INF
  ii) WEB-INF
  iii) pages
There is also an index.jsp

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15. start the browser and type the url as :
   http://localhost:8080/struts-blank/index.jsp

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16. You will get the corresponding display as follows:

Welcome!

To get started on your own application, copy the struts-blank.war to a new WAR file using the name for your application. Place it in your container's "webapp" folder (or equivalent), and let your container auto-deploy the application. Edit the skeleton configuration files as needed, restart your container, and you are on your way! (You can find the application.properties file with this message in the /WEB-INF/src/java/resources folder.

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Thus, we have correctly installed struts in our tomcat server.

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Inside the WEB-INF folder, we have the following subfolders and files.
  sub-folders
  i)classes
  ii) lib
  iii) src
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files
===============
tld files ( 6 files)
===============
  1) struts-bean.tld
  2) struts-html.tld
  3) struts-logic.tld
  4) struts-template.tld
   5) struts-tiles.tld
  6) struts-nested.tld

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xml files ( 5 files).

==========================

i) web.xml
ii) struts-config.xml
iii) tiles-defs.xml
iv) validation.xml
v) validator-rules.xml

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There are a number of jar files available in lib folder.

  i) commons-beanutils.jar
  ii) commons-collections.jar
  iii) commons-digester.jar
  iv) commons-fileupload.jar
  v) commons-lang.jar
  vi) commons-logging.jar
  vii) commons-validator.jar
  viii) jakarta-oro.jar
  ix) struts.jar

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All this is just for information.

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When we want to build our own application, we first copy struts-blank folder in the webapps folder of tomcat & Rename the folder .(say) sam. And restart the Tomcat server.
struts.jar was copied to c:\quick folder for easily remembering the classpath.

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Now, we are ready to begin compiling.
We are now in g:\examplestruts\demo1
>set path=c:\windows\command;d:\jdk1.4\bin
>set classpath=g:\examplestruts;c:\quick\struts.jar;d:\tomcat41\common\lib\servlet.jar
..demo1>javac QueryForm.java
..demo1>javac sqlbean.java
..demo1>javac resultbean.java
..demo1>javac QueryAction.java
( if we compile the files one after the other, in this sequence, we will be able to compile easily. After compiling, copy all the class files in this folder to:

g:\tomcat41\webapps\sam\WEB-INF\classes\demo1

copy query.jsp & result.jsp to:
   'g:\tomcat41\webapps\sam'
  now in another dos window, cd to:
   g:\tomcat41\webapps\
   sam\WEB-INF\struts-config.xml

  edit the struts-config.xml as follows:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<!DOCTYPE struts-config PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation// DTD Struts Configuration 1.1//EN" 
"http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/ dtds/struts-config_1_1.dtd">
 <struts-config>
 <form-beans>
  <form-bean 
 name="query             name="que  <action 
	path	path="/Query"
	ty	type="demo1.QueryAction	name="queryForm"
	scope=&q	scope="session"
	input="/query.jsp" 
<forward name="success" path="/result.jsp" />
<forward name="failure" path="/query.jsp" />sp;</struts-config>
 </struts-config>

After all these steps, restart the Tomcat server, so that the settings become effective.

Type the URL in browser as:

'http://localhost:8080/sam/query.jsp'

You should get a form with orange background, etc. If we type the password as 'ADMINISTRATOR' and the sql as 'select * from table1', we will get the query result. ( Ofcourse, the example presumes the usual creation of a simple Access database named 'dbdemo' with just table1 having two fields ( name, place) and registering it in ODBC. If the password is wrong, the page appears to be not responding just showing whatever we typed. So, our adventure with Struts has had a happy ending.

If we get, this far, we can and must build up further by in-depth study of books.& articles. In the forthcoming installments, we will see advanced Struts topics like :
  DynaForm
  Validator Framework
  Tiles
  RequestProcessor
  Scaffold
  Struts-Tags

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This tutorial cannot be a substitute for hundreds of articles and dozens of books on Struts .It is but a simple introduction .

Respectful Acknowledgements to:

  1. 'Struts your Applications'
    by
    Piyush SriVasthava
    ( DeveloperIQ---November-2002)
  2. 'Understanding Struts Framework'
    by
    Manoj Kothale
    ( DeveloperIQ.....August-2003)

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Suggested Reading:

  1. Struts in Action .
    by
    Ted Husted
    ( Manning press/ DreamTech publication)
  2.  Mastering Jakarata Struts
    by
    James Goodwill
    (Wiley/DreamTexh)
  3.  Professional Struts Applications
    by
    John Carnell
    ( Wrox )
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Tutorials

  1. Beginners Stuts tutorial.
  2. Struts Validator Framework - lab oriented lesson
  3. Developing Struts Application
  4. Testing Struts Application
  5. USING THE VALIDATOR FRAMEWORK